Jóhann Jóhannsson's "The Miners' Hymns": Live from World Financial Center Winter Garden
On Tuesday, January 31 at 7:30 pm ET, Q2 Music and New Sounds Live present a live audio Webcast of Icelandic composer Jóhann Jóhannsson's visceral score to filmmaker Bill Morrison's silent film, The Miners' Hymns. The music will be performed by the Wordless Music Orchestra conducted by Guðni Franzson and introduced by New Sounds Live host, John Schaefer.
The Miners' Hymns from Bill Morrison, who Variety heralded as "one of the most adventurous American filmmakers," is a meditation on the daily lives of coal miners in the industrial city of Durham in northeast England during the early 20th century. Conceived with composer Jóhann Jóhannsson, The Miners' Hymns contrasts archival footage, some dating back 100 years, with sweeping aerial views of a transformed modern-day Durham.
Jóhannsson's score to the 52 minute film provides a moving account of the miners' lives, simultaneously heroic and hardscrabble, with a rich brass and electronic-heavy texture. The music also harkens back to the colliery brass bands caught in the film's archival footage.
Though we won't be streaming the video of The Miners' Hymns, get a taste for the film from the film's preview and this interview with Morrison and Jóhannsson discussing their collaboration.
